2014 PokerStars King's Cup Rozvadov: Philipp Hartmann wins the lot!

Philipp Hartmann started as the dominant chip leader with just 12 players remaining on the final day of the 2014 PokerStars King's Cup Rozvadov event. It was a position he never relinquished. The German led from start to finish and only during a brief period three-handed and heads-up did it ever look as though he was in danger of losing his chip lead.

Having already secured €40,000 as part of a three-way deal with Daniel Effendy and Pavel Novotny, Hartmann outlasted both other players to win the remaining €5,000 increasing his total winnings in this tournament to €45,000 as the €200,000 guarantee was completely smashed.

In a tournament where you could fire a maximum of five bullets (two on Day 1a and 1b and one in the turbo 1c) Hartmann needed just one. He finished Day 1a with 82,300 and started Day 2 33rd out of the remaining 198 players out of the 551 total entries. Hartmann took the chip lead late on Day 2 and would never lose it again.

Hartmann started the final day well, eliminating former EPT Prague runner-up Georgios Sotiropoulos in 12th place with T♣T♦ against 9♠9♣. Hartmann then knocked out Uwe Mauerhoff with A♥K♠ against the short-stack's A♠J♥ all in preflop with the board coming K♣3♣J♣Q♥5♥. Meanwhile on the other table Effendy knocked out Nikolay Karman in a coinflip to leave nine players and one table. Effendy then dispatched the short stack Zdenek Motan in 9th and the official final table was set.

The biggest surprise early on was that it was one of the biggest stacks who was eliminated first on the final table. Daniel Effendy had opened to 65,000 with the blinds 15,000/30,000/4,000 and Radek Stockner three-bet to 185,000. Effendy moved all in for what was around a million in chips and Stockner quickly called off his stack with A♠K♥, Effendy tabled Q♣Q♥ and won the classic race on a 9♥3♦J♦2♣4♠ board. A countdown followed, Effendy just covered by a few thousand, a shell-shocked Stockner was out.

Damir Vasiljevic was next to fall, he had barely two big blinds left when he moved in with A♥8♥ but Jens Steuber's Q♥5♥ hit a queen on the river of a blank board to knock out the Croatian, leaving a table composed entirely of Germans and Czechs. Steuber's victory didn't last long, his chips went immediately across to Petr Targa; Steuber had T♥9♥ on a K♥J♣8♥ flop and made a big shove that was picked off by Targa's K♣T♣. The T♠ turn and J♣ river changed nothing and Steuber was eliminated in 6th place for €11,064.

Targa himself suffered the most ignominious exit. In a three-bet pot with the board reading 7♦6♥7♥3♦, the Czech player found himself being check-raised all in by chip leader Hartmann. Targa called with A♠7♣ and was streets ahead of Hartmann's A♣5♦. The German had the last laugh however, when the 4♥ completely a most unlikely straight for yet another big pot.

Lena Riemenschneider was knocked out in fourth place, she'd managed a remarkable comeback on Day 2 and had been very comfortable on the final table until she lost with with A♣Q♥ to Pavel Novotny's A♥K♦, doubling him up in the process. Her remaining chips went in with A♠6♣ against Hartmann's 6♦6♥ but she was unable to spike an ace to survive.

The remaining three players, Hartmann, Effendy and Pavel Novotny agreed on a deal that saw Hartmann get €40,000 and the other two €29,856 a-piece with €5,000 being played for. Effendy began to gain ground on Hartmann and looked like he might overtake his compatriot but then Hartmann eliminated Novotny to once again increase his lead. Novotny's demise came when he fired all three streets of a Q♥Q♠7♦9♠2♣ board with 5♦3♠ only for Hartmann to make a hero call with 6♦6♠ and win the pot.

The heads-up battle lasted around 45 minutes, Effendy gained some early momentum before Hartmann won several crucial pots in a row, including cracking aces with Q♠7♣ and gradually putting a squeeze on Effendy's stack. Eventually Hartmann's "nice induce" (as Effendy called it) with a made straight was enough to make Effendy go for broke, only to find out he was drawing dead.

With that, there's just time to say congratulations to Philipp Hartmann and all the finalists. Hope you've enjoyed this event!